Phillies' Horst ready to step out of shadow, into limelight

Dubee gives glowing report of lefty who had a 1.15 ERA a season ago.

Jeremy Horst had a 2.11 ERA in 26 games with the IronPigs last season. (KEVIN MINGORA, TMC FILE…)

March 03, 2013|By Mandy Housenick, Of The Morning Call

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Jeremy Horst somehow managed to escape the headlines — and the jeers — last season with the Phillies.

The left-hander would welcome both in 2013.

It would mean — he's made it.

"You can't get away with hiding in the back corner in Philly," he told The Morning Call. "You can't just stand off to the side ... at some point you're going to have to do something special."

What Horst did in 2012 was pretty good.

Of the reliever's 32 appearances, 25 were scoreless. He posted a 1.15 ERA with 40 strikeouts and 14 walks in 31 1/3 innings. Opponents hit only .193 against him (lefties hit .170, righties .210). His 1.117 WHIP was the third lowest of any Phillies reliever (only Jonathan Papelbon and Raul Valdes were better).

Yet Horst wasn't somebody who got big applause from fans. Not after his first seven outings with the Phillies were scoreless. Not after he struck out seven of the first 14 batters he faced in a Phillies uniform. And not after he recorded two holds in the season's final week to help the Phillies get to .500.

But the flip side of that is he didn't walk off the mound to fans screaming at him, mocking or booing him.

That could happen at some point this year, especially if Horst has a more prominent role in the Phillies bullpen.

"You can hear some really negative things from the fans, but that's not going to affect me because they're passionate," Horst said. "... I'll be happy if everyone starts to notice and starts pulling for me. I'd like to be a big-time guy. I like to get in tough situations."

From the sound of it, even this early in spring training, pitching coach Rich Dubee might be putting the 27-year-old in tougher situations this year. Dubee, not one to regularly hand out compliments, is very impressed with what Horst did last season and is confident he can do much of the same this year.

"He's real deceptive," Dubee said. "Hitters really don't get a good look at him. They don't pick him up very well, and he's got three speeds. He's got a fastball that goes about 90-93, he's got a slider that's at 82 and he's got a change-up. He throws them all for strikes."

That's exactly what Horst has been working so hard at doing. He's a guy who believes in locating his fastball with pinpoint precision. That, in turn, allows him to go after guys with his slider and change-up.

In 2012, he threw his fastball 53 percent of the time, followed by his slider (40 percent) and his change-up (7 percent). Although he didn't throw his change-up a whole lot, the success he had with it a year ago is unarguable. Of the 79 times he threw it, he got swings and misses 16 times (20.25 percent), by far the greatest percentage of any of his other pitches.

"I like to go with three pitches or less. Attack the zone," Horst said. "I think you catch a lot of hitters off guard versus trying to get ahead or getting to the point where you can throw that strikeout pitch or your dirty pitch.

"So it's getting early contact and getting to the zone because I don't know how long I'm going to be out there."

Horst entered spring training in a battle to win one of the three remaining open spots in the bullpen (Jonathan Papelbon, Antonio Bastardo, Chad Durbin and Mike Adams are givens). He is valuable not just because he's left-handed, but because he's shown the ability to be a multiple-innings guy.

In nine of his appearances last year he went more than one inning and eight times he threw on back-to-back days. Although he never recorded more than six outs in 2012, he twice went 2 2/3 in 2011 with the Cincinnati Reds.

But he's also shown he can go in and throw one pitch and get one guy out. Appearance over.

"I've been a starter, a long reliever, a short-inning guy," Horst said. "That's something that I feel that with my program and the preparation that I do, it allows me to be ready for any situation.

"I don't like to ever limit myself in any role I can do because if somebody is going to offer you the ball, how can you say, 'Well, this is what I'm more comfortable doing.' That's an opportunity and you've got to take a hold of it."

Horst's main competition for the final three spots in the bullpen are right-handers Phillippe Aumont, Justin De Fratus, Michael Stutes and left-hander Jake Diekman. If he has a solid spring, Valdes, a lefty, could find himself in the mix as well.

But right now, Dubee has trouble not giving Horst a glowing review. He likes everything about him.

"He's got a good package. He's a great professional," Dubee said. "He does his work. He's durable. He's resilient. He can pitch back-to-back. You can pitch him multiple innings. He was a big-time strike thrower for us last year. All that added up to a heck of a season for him."